


When Aang met Mako

by heartsyhawk



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cross-Generational Friendship, Gen, some friendships are so strong they can transcend lifetimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2018-03-07 18:15:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3178310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsyhawk/pseuds/heartsyhawk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shortly before his death, Avatar Aang meets a toddler whose name (and not-yet-born little brother-to-be) he recognizes from dreams about his next life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Aang met Mako

**Author's Note:**

> The major character death warning applies to Aang, which is absolutely not a surprise to anyone familiar with Legend of Korra but it is pretty focal to the story at hand.
> 
> Aang is 66, Mako is roughly 18 months old, and Bolin still has about 4 and a half months until he's born, which preserves their canon ages as we know them for seventeenish years in the future where Korra comes to Republic City.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this, thank you for reading!

Aang sat heavily on the bench and sighed. He'd had his share of exhausting days, but this was one weighed heavier on him than all the rest put together.

Today he'd had to admit to Katara that though he was still quite young, as Avatar life-spans and even those of regular men go, his time was coming to an end. He'd suspected as much for a few weeks, since he'd started having dreams that confused him about people he'd never met, things he'd never seen. He'd first hoped the brief flashes were leaking to his consciousness from the Spirit World from Avatars past, but he knew he was lying to himself and accepted the implications.

His wife, however, was a very different story. At first she'd been entirely dismissive of the idea. She insisted that he was quite healthy. And physically, she had a valid point; he was a strict vegetarian and lived a very active lifestyle, and he kept his stress levels as controlled as he could. Looking at him, most people had a hard time believing he'd already celebrated his sixty-sixth birthday, much less that he had spent an entire century in an in iceberg. But it was those middle hundred years that had made the difference, he figured.

Even going into the Avatar State for a couple of minutes was taxing on a person and he'd spent a whole century in it. Of course it came with severe repercussions. Knowing it was spiritual rather than physical had not comforted Katara. She'd gone from disbelief to almost irrational fury in record time and had raged at the entire universe. She cursed everything from the Avatar State to the iceberg and then she'd turned her anger at him: for running away and getting trapped in the first place, for not telling her his concerns sooner, for telling her at all, for accepting it as unchangeable fact, for restoring hope to her life and taking it away so early, for not being sure how much time he had left. She'd shouted herself hoarse at him until she dissolved into tears in his arms. 

They'd talked for hours about what exactly this meant, and how they'd tell their children and what in the world they'd say to the others. He talked at great length about how to go about finding the baby who'd replace him as Avatar. He knew it was difficult for her to hear, but nobody had needed to seek an Avatar in 166 years and the world had changed a lot since then.

The next child to host the Avatar Spirit would be born within a week of his passing and would be born a waterbender, that much was definite. But waterbenders weren't just limited to the poles as they had been in Kuruk's time or even Roku and Aang's. Waterbenders had populated the Foggy Swamp at the Equator and it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that the next Avatar could be born there. But there was no law mandating that the host of the Avatar Spirit had to be born in the highest population density centers of a particular bender. 

The four nations were not nearly as separated as they'd been even twenty years ago, and the creation of the fifth nation—the United Republic—mixed things up even further. While still not especially commonplace, couples from different nations were intermarrying with increasing frequency. Even fifteen years ago it was fairly taboo for a waterbender to marry a non-waterbender, and it was virtually unheard of for somebody Watertribe to marry someone who wasn't. But the reality was that the next Avatar could easily be born of Water and also have Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom ancestry. 

Katara's heart had been broken further with each sentence from Aang's mouth but to her credit she'd pressed him about the details, about how to find his reincarnation. She promised to use every resource at her disposal (and Zuko's disposal and Sokka's White Lotus contacts and so forth). Once they'd established that she had no intention of abandoning the Avatar he'd gently asked her for a favor. She promised anything.

“Just let the Avatar be a kid. You gave me that, and that is all I want in the world for the little boy or girl who'll be the next Avatar. Don't let them put the whole weight of the world on a kid's shoulders, at least not all the time.”

And with that, the crying had started again and eventually Katara had barred him from the house and actually all of air temple island for a couple hours while she cooked dinner and pulled herself together. So he'd gone for a walk around the city and ended here, in the park.

He sat for a while, resting and contemplating his place in the universe and his not-so-distant demise. He lost track of time watching a squirrel-rabbit scurrying around and hunting for nuts. 

Suddenly he was startled back to reality by an insistent tugging on his sleeve. He glanced beside him and his eyes widened. “Hey there, little guy.” A toddler had climbed up onto the bench next to him. He had dark hair, huge golden eyes, and a book clutched in the hand he wasn't tugging on Aang's arm with.  
Aang stared around, nobody seemed to be missing a child. “Where's your Mommy and Daddy?”

In response the little boy put his thumb into his mouth and shrugged. He pointed at Aang and then patted the book insistently with his free hand. After a moment he narrowed his eyes into an expression way too serious for a child that age—it reminded Aang uncannily of Tenzin actually—and babbled a whole string of toddler nonsense at him. He pointed and patted his book again and Aang took the hint.

“What do you have there?” He gently took the book and recognized it immediately. Zuko's children had never tired of hearing stories about his adventures with Uncle Aang and the rest of the team (indeed his own kids and Sokka and Suki's brood and Toph's little girls had loved them too). And when his oldest daughter—Princess Izumi—was expecting her first child, Zuko had paid a small fortune to turn the stories into books for children. The whole group had gotten together and picked the best stories and adventures. This one was the story of Aang and the Blue Spirit. 

The cover was beautiful; Aang's daughter Kya had painted all the covers herself. The ominous mask of the Blue Spirit leered from the center, on the left there was a picture of Zuko looking kind and concerned and regal (Kya and the other kids had never really known sourpuss grumpy super serious teenage Zuko, they only knew him as their slightly stuffy but very sweet Uncle/Daddy Fire Lord Zuko who could be super serious, but was equally likely to roll down a grassy hill with the kids.), and on the right was a picture of Aang looking nervous. 

The toddler next to him pointed again and insistently slapped at the book with both hands, little eyebrows knit. Aang grinned. “Afftaw?”

“Are you trying to say 'Avatar'?” He chuckled. “Very good, that is me on your book. Well...a long time ago.”

The child's eyes lit up and he smiled. He patted the book one more time and looked expectantly at the airbender.

“Afftaw boo.” He said firmly, when he got no response. “Boo!” He insisted.

“Do you want me to read that to you?” He couldn't suppress a laugh at the somber little nod as the little boy's fingers made their way back to his mouth. He looked around again, concerned that nobody seemed to be missing a baby. The little boy looked too well dressed and well fed to be homeless or an orphan and he didn't seem to belong to any of the families making their way through the park. “Where are your parents?”

“Boo!” 

“Oh, ok, ok. I get it.” Aang laughed and opened the book. Inside the front cover somebody had written a name in lovely, steady script and he was pretty sure it belonged to the boy beside him. “But I think first we should find your Mama and Daddy, Mako.” He smiled serenely. “I bet they miss you.”

“No miss. Boo!” The toddler insisted again. He tugged the book back to his own lap and opened it. “Read boo...”

“Okay, alright. I'll read it.” Aang gently took it back. The story was short enough, and he figured that this little boy could not have possibly come from very far away. It was probably a better idea to remain here than to take the child around looking for his parents when they could easily miss each other. He decided that if no parents had noticed the absence of their baby he'd take the toddler to Toph and Lin to try sorting everything out. Besides, it had been a long time since he'd been able to read to a child and some part of his spirit wanted very much to bring a little joy when he was so full of worry and sorrow for his own fate.

Aang started reading and the little boy scooted closer to him happily and sucked on his thumb. Once he'd gotten four pages in, however, a short, stocky man with a red scarf came running through the park, calling out frantically.

“Mako? Has anybody seen my son? Mako?!” He called desperately. 

The toddler turned at the sound and beamed. “Baba!”

Aang stood up and stepped toward the distraught man. “Sir, is this your little boy?”

The man cried out in relief and reached for his son, who immediately shrieked with laughter and reached toward him. “Oh Mako! Thank the spirits you're alright!” He turned over his shoulder. “Catori! Catori, I've found him!” He pressed kisses all over the little boy's face. “Oh you scared us half to death little man.” He cooed happily. 

“Baba, Afftaw!” Mako smiled up at his father, who nodded.

“Yes, Mako. He's the Avatar. Same as in your book.” He straightened and extended a hand to Aang. “Avatar Aang, thank you for looking after my boy. I hope he wasn't bugging you too much.”

“Not at all.” Aang smiled. “He's a sweet little guy.”

The man nodded and ruffled his son's hair. “I'm just glad he's okay. His mother put him down for a nap about half an hour ago. She went to brew a pot of tea and apparently he's learned how to climb out of his cot.” The father's eyebrows knit suddenly and he scratched his chin. “And unlock the door to our apartment...I'll have to put up a new lock he can't reach.”

Before Aang could reply a young woman hurried over to them, out of breath and with her hand resting protectively on the slight swell of her belly. She was very clearly the toddler's mother; they had the same forked eyebrows and golden eyes, though hers were red rimmed and her cheeks were streaked with tears. “Oh thank the Spirits he's alright.” She reached for her son and he practically flew into her arms. “Where've you been, baby?” She practically sobbed into his hair.

“Bugging the Avatar for a bedtime story, Catori.” Her husband smiled.

Aang shrugged and held out the book.

“Oh, the Blue Spirit one, that's his favorite.” Catori smiled fondly, before staring in horror at Aang. “Oh no...Avatar Aang, ...you must think I'm the worst mother in the world, losing my baby...” Tears filled her eyes again and Aang instantly flailed his arms.

“No, not at all!” He assured her. “I had three children of my own, and I remember their toddler days quite well. My little girl made it half to the Fire Nation one time.” He remembered affectionately.

“Thank goodness my Mako's not quite that ambitious.” The woman chuckled and smoothed her son's hair as he nestled into the crook of her neck. “He's been such a little handful lately.”

Aang nodded. “Has he started bending yet?”

Catori beamed and shot a smug look at her husband. “He's a firebender, like me. At first we weren't sure if he'd bend anything, but on his birthday a few months back he relit the candles on his cake. Four times.”

“So I gathered, about the firebending, not his cake.”

“How could you tell? I mean how'd you know he can bend?” The husband furrowed his eyebrows.

“San, he's the Avatar.” The young woman rolled her eyes. “I'm sure he can read auras or spirit energy or something.”

Aang chuckled. “Actually, I just guessed. He has the same spark in his eyes that my best friend's grandson had when he was born and Iroh was firebending before he could even walk.”

San grinned. “Mako too. You wouldn't know it to look at him go but he's only been walking a few weeks. Just picked up one day and took off.”

Little Mako stuffed his fingers into his mouth and looked pleased with himself. 

“Are you teaching him?” Aang asked kindly. “To bend, I mean. He might have less energy to burn if he's firebending routinely.”

The young woman smiled ruefully. “I am. Or I was.” She frowned and glanced down at her belly. “I probably should get another teacher for him. It's not quite as easy right now, for me. I get tired pretty quickly, lately. And this one gets all worked up when I bend.”

“I think it's because she's an earthbender like her old man.” San grinned and rested a gentle hand on the swell of his wife's belly. “Firebending upsets her.”

Catori laughed. “Maybe. I wouldn't be so sure this one's a girl, though. A baby brother wouldn't be so bad, would it, Mako?”

The little firebender pulled his hand out of his mouth and leaned down to pat his mother's belly. “Baby good.” He said assertively. He then curled back up against his mother's shoulder.

She gasped slightly and clapped a hand to the side of her belly. Her husband looked immediately alarmed. “Catori? What? What is it?” He grabbed for the toddler in her arms.

She passed Mako to her husband and shook her head. “The baby just started kicking. Usually it's not quite so strong so suddenly and it surprised me is all, everything's fine.”

“Aw, she and her big brother are already getting on. And speaking of her big brother, looks like Mako's finally ready for that nap.” San chuckled as the toddler settled against his shoulder with a big yawn. “Guess his little adventure tired him out.”

“Well, with any luck he'll sleep through long enough for me to get dinner ready.” The young woman smiled fondly. “Avatar Aang, I cannot possibly thank you enough for finding our little boy. Would you like to come to dinner? We don't live far—right over our blown glass shop on the main road there. It certainly wouldn't be any trouble.” Catori pointed.

Aang smiled. “Ah, I know the place well. Unfortunately tonight is kind of an important night for my wife and I,so...”

Catori blushed slightly and nodded. “Of course! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have presumed--”

“It's quite alright.” Aang chuckled. “Perhaps we could plan for another time? Then I could bring my wife. I'm sure Katara would love to meet your little boy. It's been ages since she's had a baby to play with and it doesn't look like any of our kids are planning on giving us grandchildren any time soon.”

“It would be our honor.” San nodded his head. “Whenever is most convenient for you and the Lady Katara just pop into the store and let us know.”

“I'll do that.” Aang promised. He knelt suddenly and picked up a blade of grass and with a quick burst of flame reduced it to ash. “May I?” He gestured toward the toddler, who was staring with interest at Aang's fingertips.

San cocked his head to the side. “What?”

“Can I give your son a blessing?”

“Oh, sure. Right! Of course! We'd be honored.” The man nodded and shifted the toddler in his arms. 

Aang smiled and gently smudged a crescent moon of ashes on Mako's head between his eyebrows. “The mark of the Brave.” He explained. “It's a mark given to the courageous in the Water Tribes, but it seems to fit your little guy pretty well. May the Spirits reward your curiosity and tenacity always, and keep you from harm, Mako.” He said somberly. The child blinked up at him but didn't say anything. “Now you be good for your Mama.”

“Kay.” He yawned again, clearly unimpressed by the proceedings.

“Thank you, Avatar Aang.” Catori bowed her head and took her son's book from Aang's hand. “You've done my family a great honor.”

“The honor is mine.” Aang said easily. “But you should probably get him home. I don't know if he'll even stay awake through the whole story.” He hesitated for a moment. “Would you like me to bless the little one too?”

“Oh wow, you can do that? I mean, well of course you can, but you would?” San squeaked. His son raised his head and looked a little disturbed. “Yeah, we'd love that, right Catori?”

Catori nodded and stepped forward shyly. Aang gently rested a hand on the swell of her belly. “Alright then. I don't know this one personally enough to do an individualized blessing, but I can tell you've got a healthy baby on the way, ma'am. Good strong heartbeat and I can already sense a gentle spirit.” He smiled. “Did you have names picked out?”

“If she's a girl we're naming her for 'Tori's aunt, Kira, who helped us get set up in the city.” San grinned, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. “And if he's a boy, we thought we'd call him Bolin.”

“Those are both great.” Aang smiled and closed his eyes. To a casual observer he looked like he was gathering focus or meditating, but really he was trying to hide the shock at the name. Mako was an extremely popular name these days (owed in no small part to the actor who played Uncle Iroh in the Ember Island Players becoming famous internationally). It was such a common name among boys of Fire Nation descent it hadn't even registered. But the name Bolin? It was much less common and Aang had learned long ago that their were no coincidences in the Avatar's life. 

The name Bolin called up the briefest flash of brilliant green eyes, a loud, happy laugh, and a warm, safe feeling. The strange dreams Aang had been having often involved, among others, a set of boys, that radiated love and safety. He knew, as instinctively as he'd have been able to recognize Kyoshi's daughter, or Yangchen's guardian and friend Boma, or Roku's best friend Sozin, that these two boys were eventually going to be important to his next life.

“Little one, may the spirits bless you and watch over you. May your heart be pure and kind and full of joy. May good fortune find you always and may you never want for a friend.” Aang said reverently over Catori's belly. He opened his eyes and smiled encouragingly at the young couple. “I know it sounds a little cheesy, but I see great things in the future for your kids. You have two very special children.”  
San beamed at his wife and the toddler in his arms. “I know. I'm truly blessed.” He said humbly. “Thank you,Avatar Aang, for blessing my children.”  
“We are honored.” Catori bowed her head.  
Aang returned the bow. “Children are our most precious gift.”  
Mako yawned loudly in his father's arm and Catori looked at him lovingly. “We should head home now, get our brave little adventurer to bed.”  
“Of course.” Aang nodded. “And the next time my wife and I are in the city we'll stop by your shop.”  
With that the couple turned and headed toward their apartment and Aang started heading for his home on Air Temple Island. 

~-~-~-~

_Two weeks later all of Republic City wore white to mourn the Avatar's passing the day after his death was announced on the radio. Everyone was shocked and sad;he'd been so young and nobody had seen it coming except for his closest friends and family. The very next day the widow Katara came into Republic City._

_Her eyes were red rimmed but she walked with dignity and purpose to the downtown area,lined with shops, until she came at last to a small place that specialized in blown glass. She entered the shop and spoke to the young woman behind the counter for quite some time before purchasing a beautiful orange sky bison, so perfectly detailed it looked about ready to low and take off in flight. She stayed for tea, and eventually was persuaded to stay for the dinner her husband had promised the young couple. She read the little boy a bed time story (the book version of the story where Aang learned that Monk Gyatso had been friends with Roku and ended with the line that“some friendships are so strong they can even transcend lifetimes”) and went home, where she announced that she would be moving back to the South Pole._  
  
 _At the same time, halfway across the world,a baby girl, barely two full days old and somehow simultaneously completely unremarkable and incredibly special, slept comfortably in her mother's arms, her downy soft head filled with dreams she'd never remember about things no newborn could possibly know._


End file.
